Review Article
Nursing Interventions in Prevention and Healing of Leg Ulcers: Systematic Review of the Literature
César Fonseca1*, Manuel Lopes1 , Ana Ramos2, Vitor Santos3, Antonio Esquinas4 and PedroParreira51Universidade de Évora, Portugal
2North Lisbon Hospital Center, Portugal
3West Hospital, IberWounds West, Portugal
4Unidade de Terapia Intensiva, Hospital Morales Meseguer, Murcia, Spain
5School of Coimbra and Master’s in Nursing, Specialization in Health Care Unit Management, Portugal
- *Corresponding Author:
- César Fonseca
Researcher, Universidade de Évora, Portugal
Tel: 969-042-537
E-mail: cesar.j.fonseca@gmail.com
Received date: November 20, 2015 Accepted date: November 26, 2015 Published date: November 30, 2015
Citation: Fonseca C, Lopes M, Ramos A, Santos V, Esquinas V, et al. (2015) Nursing Interventions in Prevention and Healing of Leg Ulcers:Systematic Review of the Literature. J Palliat Care Med 5:238. doi:10.4172/2165-7386.1000238
Copyright: © 2015 Fonseca C, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Aim: To identify nursing interventions aimed at persons with venous, arterial or mixed leg ulcers. Methodology: Carried out research in the EBSCO search engine: CINAHL Plus with Full Text, MEDLINE with Full Text, MedicLatina, Academic Search Complete, sought full text articles, published between 2008/01/01 and 2015/01/31, with the following keywords [(MM "leg ulcer") OR (wound care) OR (wound healing)] AND [(nursing) OR (nursing assessment) OR (nursing intervention)], filtered through initial question in PI[C]O format. Results: The different etiologies of leg ulcer require a specific therapeutic and prophylactic approach. Factors that promote healing were identified: individualization of care, interpersonal relationship, pain control, control of the exudate, education for health self-management, self-care, therapeutic adherence, implementation of guidelines of good practice and auditing and feedback of the practices. Conclusion: Person-centred care and practices based on evidence improves health results in prevention and treatment of leg ulcers.
